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May 31, 2005

Mesh Network Reduces Traffic

By Nancy Gohring

The city of Portsmouth, UK, hopes its mesh network will reduce traffic: The city built a network using Motorola’s MeshNetworks technology. The network allows the transmission of GPS information from buses to bus stops, where potential passengers know how long of a wait they have in store. The city believes that if public transport is more predictable more people will use it, thus reducing traffic on the roads. Other cities in Europe have systems that alert waiting riders about when the next bus or train will arrive, though I’m not sure how the systems work. I was in a couple cities in Germany and Austria recently and found that bus stops in many places have digital signs counting down the minutes to the next bus arrival. Such systems might be wired when used in subways or trains. But the bus systems would have to be wireless.